Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, famous for watersports, beaches and clear water, and it is worlds away from the mainland in feel. For divers it offers both natural reef and some of the most interesting wrecks in Florida. My Key West gallery comes from a trip there in August 2016. This page explains the sites behind the pictures, what summer diving in the Lower Keys is like, and how to photograph a wreck. The Key West dive guide covers the full range of sites.

What is diving in Key West like?

Key West lies near the south-western end of the Florida Reef, where the reef tract curves west toward the Marquesas Keys and the Dry Tortugas. Here, waters from the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico and Florida Bay meet and mix. The reefs are a few miles offshore, and many are marked by iron lighthouses built in the nineteenth century to warn ships away from them.

Divers have three main options. There are shallow bank and spur-and-groove reefs, such as Sand Key, Western Sambo and Eastern Dry Rocks, suitable for new divers and snorkelers. There are mid-depth wrecks like Joe’s Tug, scuttled to create artificial reefs. And there is the Vandenberg, a deep, very large wreck for advanced divers. Further afield, Dry Tortugas National Park, about 70 miles west, offers some of the wildest diving in Florida.

What is Joe’s Tug, really?

Despite its name, Joe’s Tug is not a tugboat. It is a 75-ft steel-hulled shrimp boat, according to the Florida Keys tourism council, and it lies on sand in about 65 ft of water roughly 7 miles south-east of Key West. Its history is colourful. According to accounts from local dive operators, the boat sank in 1986 in Stock Island’s Safe Harbor, next to a marina pier. It had reportedly been intended for sinking as an artificial reef near Miami, but local “pirates” seized it, and it went down during a failed escape attempt.

After that, the boat was raised, cleaned on land and prepared for scuttling intact. It was sunk on January 21, 1989. Hurricanes have reshaped it since. Hurricane Georges tore off the wheelhouse in 1998, and the surge from Hurricane Irene split the wreck in two in 1999. Reinforcing metal added before the sinking helps keep the hull upright, and the bow and stern now lie about 30 ft apart, close enough to explore both in one dive.

What lives on Joe’s Tug?

For a small wreck, Joe’s Tug holds a great deal of life. The hull is covered with corals, sponges and other invertebrates, and resident grunts and sergeant majors swarm around it. The wreck is known for large, unusually tame moray eels and barracuda, and a goliath grouper has been a regular resident. At night, small crabs and lobsters emerge on the decks.

Because it lies at a moderate depth, often with visibility of around 50 ft, Joe’s Tug is a popular site for novice wreck divers and for underwater photographers. Its compact size means that a photographer can work the whole wreck in one dive, moving from wide views of the hull to close-ups of the animals living on it.

What was the Vandenberg?

The USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg had a long life before it became a reef. It was launched in 1943 as the troop transport USS General Harry Taylor, carried troops in the Pacific during World War II, and brought veterans home after the war. In the early 1960s it was converted into a missile range instrumentation ship, renamed after General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, which tracked missile and spacecraft launches until it was retired in 1983. Film fans may recognise it as the Russian research ship in the 1998 film Virus.

The ship was scuttled on May 27, 2009, about 7 miles south of Key West, and sits upright on sand in about 140 ft of water. At 522 ft long, it is often described as the second-largest ship ever deliberately sunk as an artificial reef, after the aircraft carrier Oriskany off Pensacola. Its superstructure rises far above the sand, so divers can explore the masts, upper decks and the mounts where its large tracking dishes once stood, without going near the bottom.

Who should dive the Vandenberg?

Although the upper parts of the wreck are within reach of divers with intermediate experience, the Vandenberg is a deep, open-water dive, often with a current. Beginners are advised to dive it only with a guide, and many operators expect advanced certification. The main decks lie at roughly 80 to 100 ft, where no-decompression limits are short and gas runs out quickly.

Divers who are trained to use nitrox gain extra bottom time at those depths. Planning a turn pressure before the dive, carrying a surface marker buoy for the ascent, and staying on the outside of the wreck unless properly trained for penetration are all sensible precautions. Wreck penetration requires specific training and equipment, because the risks of entanglement, silt-outs and disorientation are much higher than in open water.

What lives on the Vandenberg?

The Vandenberg began attracting fish within months of sinking, and it now holds schools of jacks, snapper and barracuda, along with angelfish and other reef fish. Goliath grouper, the largest groupers in the Atlantic, gather around wrecks like this, and divers often see them near the hull. Large barracuda, some among the biggest a diver will see in the Keys, hang motionless in the water around the superstructure.

The hull itself has been gradually colonised by sponges, hydroids, algae and corals, and scientists have followed the process since the sinking. Each year the wreck looks less like a ship and more like a reef, which is exactly what it was intended to become. Comparing photos taken in different years shows the change clearly.

Why are goliath grouper so common on wrecks?

The Atlantic goliath grouper can grow to well over 2 m and several hundred kilograms. It was once heavily fished, and by the late 1980s its numbers in U.S. waters had collapsed. In 1990, harvest was banned in U.S. federal and Florida state waters, and the species has recovered in parts of Florida since then, though it remains rare elsewhere in its range.

Goliath grouper favour structure, such as ledges, mangrove roots and especially wrecks, where they can shelter and ambush prey. In late summer, they gather in spawning aggregations at some sites off Florida. For divers in the Keys, a goliath grouper on a wreck is one of the most memorable encounters; for photographers, their size and calm behaviour make them excellent subjects, best captured with a wide-angle lens and a diver for scale.

What about barracuda and morays?

Great barracuda are among the most photographed fish in Key West. They are curious, often approaching divers closely, and they tend to hold still, which makes them good subjects for portraits. Their reputation for aggression is mostly undeserved; attacks on divers are extremely rare. Large individuals often patrol wrecks, where smaller fish are concentrated.

Moray eels, including the green moray and the spotted moray, live in holes in the wrecks and reefs, and on well-dived sites they can become accustomed to divers. They open and close their mouths constantly, which looks threatening but is how they breathe, pumping water over their gills. Photographers should keep a respectful distance and never put hands near a moray’s hole.

What is summer diving in Key West like?

August is the height of summer in the Keys. Water temperatures typically reach the high 80s °F, so many divers wear only a thin wetsuit or a rash guard. Seas are often calm, especially in the mornings, and visibility on the outer reefs and wrecks can be excellent.

The heat on land and on the boat is intense, and divers need to drink plenty of water and protect themselves from the sun. Afternoon thunderstorms are common, often building quickly over the islands, and lightning is a real hazard on open water; boat captains watch the sky closely. August also falls in the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June to November. A storm far away can bring swell and wind for days, and a direct threat can close the Keys entirely. Flexible plans and travel insurance are worth considering for summer trips.

Does summer heat affect the reefs?

Warm water is pleasant for divers, but it is hard on corals. When sea temperatures stay above a coral’s tolerance for weeks, corals expel the symbiotic algae that give them colour and much of their food, a process known as bleaching. The Florida Keys experienced major bleaching events in 2014 and 2015, and in 2023 a severe marine heatwave pushed water temperatures to record levels and caused widespread bleaching and coral death.

Divers can help by following the reef rules: no touching, no standing on coral, no collecting and careful buoyancy. Wrecks, such as Joe’s Tug and the Vandenberg, are less vulnerable to heat than natural reefs, because the fish that gather there do not depend on live coral in the same way. That is one reason artificial reefs remain valuable for diving as natural reefs change.

How do you photograph a wreck?

Wrecks reward wide-angle photography. The most striking wreck images show the scale of the structure, often with a diver or a large fish for comparison, and use the lines of the hull, masts and rails to lead the eye. Shooting upward, with the surface or the sun behind the wreck, creates silhouettes and adds depth to the scene.

Because wrecks are large and often deep, sunlight alone usually provides most of the illumination for wide scenes, and lights or strobes are used to bring out colour in the foreground: a sponge on a railing, a fish in a doorway or coral growing on the hull. On a deep wreck, the blue water of depth can be used as part of the composition rather than fought.

What are the challenges of photographing deep wrecks?

Depth brings challenges. Colour fades quickly with depth, so images taken on the Vandenberg’s decks look blue unless artificial light is used. Bottom time is short, so there is little opportunity to experiment, and narcosis at depth can slow thinking. A photographer should plan the shots before the dive and keep an eye on the computer.

Current is another challenge. Holding position to frame a shot is harder in moving water, and touching the wreck to steady oneself risks injury from sharp metal or damage to fragile growth. The best wreck photographers combine good buoyancy with a willingness to work quickly, moving on when the conditions or the time say so.

What about invasive lionfish?

Lionfish, native to the Indo-Pacific, are now established throughout the Caribbean and the Florida Keys, where they were first confirmed in 2009. They are voracious predators of small reef fish and reproduce quickly, and their spread is one of the most serious threats to reef fish communities in the region. Wrecks, with their many crevices, are favoured habitat.

For photographers, lionfish are striking subjects, but they should be approached with care: their spines are venomous, and a sting is very painful. In the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, lionfish may be removed by divers using specific equipment under state rules, and many dive operators encourage removal. Whatever your view on that, the presence of lionfish in a photograph is a record of how Atlantic reefs have changed.

What did the trip show?

Key West offers a distinctive kind of Keys diving: a mix of lighthouse reefs, small and characterful wrecks like Joe’s Tug, and the enormous Vandenberg. Summer brings warm water and calm seas, along with heat, storms and the risk of hurricanes. For a photographer, the wrecks are the highlight: hard, high structure covered in life, with large, approachable fish that make memorable images. The Key Largo and Florida Keys galleries record trips to the Upper Keys.